The Little Mermaid
by Seguchi Touma
Summary: 1x4 - Deathfic - The Hans Christian Anderson tale redone with Quatre as the Mermaid and Heero as the Prince. Keep in mind that this is the original format, not the Disney retelling.
1. The Little Mermaid - Part One

Title: Twisted Faerie Tales: The Little Mermaid  
Author: Zoisite NightDragon  
Pairings: 1x4  
Status: Finished  
Disclaimer/Warnings/etc: This is a retelling of the Hans Christian Anderson version, be forewarned. The original of this story was not cute and fuzzy, much as the original Grimm Brothers stories were not. For some reason, I want to do a series of these stories with different GW chars as the main roles and adding their own twists. I don't know yet. I want to see how this one goes first.  
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Quatre sat upon the flat rock, his aqua eyes wide upon the sun and the endless night sky above him. He had finally reached the age of fifteen, the time when he was allowed to make his first journey to the surface that lay beyond the world of water that he had only known all his life. The full moon had been nearly blinding at first, bringing tears to his eyes until they gradually adjusted to the brightness. Where he lived in the palace, any light was muted by the depths instead of this pure. With a delicate hand still shading his eyes, Quatre still enjoyed the view, even if he had been in the same spot for an hour or more. Waves lapped about him, tinged silver from the orb above. Far off lay the city of Copenhagen, the lanterns from there glimmering like fireflies. Stretching his hands over his head, he reached for the stars, wanting to hold the glittering lights in his hands. Even the soft breezes playing along his skin was a new sensation, not completely pleasant though as dryness set in.  
  
The sound of music drifted across the waters, the merboy's head turning towards it curiously. What was this? He had heard the whales sing their songs before, as well as the dolphins occasionally, but this? From the darkness came more points of light, the voices growing louder and merrier. With a hint of fear, Quatre dove behind his rock, peering out worriedly. Stories ran among the merpeople of fisherman who would cast nets into the sea and draw in anything. A few of his own people had been rumoured to be taken away like that and made to be circus freaks, living their lives in tiny tanks instead of the vast oceans as Poseidon meant for them to. Humans were regarded as frightening and odd creatures for the most part among he and his kind.  
  
The ship sailed near his rock, laughter ringing onboard along with the playing of various musical instruments. Lantern light burned across the deck, illuminating the figures that danced and talked as Quatre peeked out cautiously. These didn't seem to be the cruel creatures he had been warned of. He saw no vicious claws or horns or even tanks on the floating mass. The music brought a smile to his pale rose lips, singing softly along with it. As the players stopped for a rest, the lilting notes of Quatre's voice still carried, filling the sudden quiet. Clapping his hand over his mouth, the merboy trembled, readying to dive back down into the water.  
  
A deep brown haired male leaned over the rail of the ship, his storm blue eyes searching the water. "Hello?"  
  
"Your Highness? Prince Heero?" asked a second one, joining him and gazing puzzled down as well.  
  
"I heard something."  
  
"'The singing? Twas only a mermaid, Sire. They sing, trying to lure sailors to their deaths by jumping overboard or ships into smashing themselves on the rocks. Evil creatures Sire."  
  
Quatre's cherubic face screwed itself into a frown at this. Causing ships to wreck indeed! Never had any of his sort done that. If anything, they guided lost sailors back to the shore or ports. If all looked lost, they tried to reassure them, explaining that things were better beneath the sea. It was unfortunate that they couldn't survive down where Quatre lived. Lifting his gaze back to the passing ship, he nearly cried out at the sudden explosion of fireworks being sent off. Sparks of colour danced across the evening sky, showers of them painting designs across the darkened canopy of gathering clouds. Clasping his hands before him, the merboy's eyes grew wide. Never had he seen something like this. A stoke of lightening splitting the night brought all the festivities to an end. The sails upon the boat were trimmed as the winds raised, the waves becoming wilder as they crashed against the ship's hull and even lashed at Quatre as he clung to his rock.  
  
Shouts came from the ship, loud and panicked. Winds ripped at the sails and hull, the massive wooden structure listing to one side badly as water flowed over the deck. Shrieks of men and women swept overboard rang in Quatre's ears, the cries of those the sea mercilessly swallowed. Rising up, he held to his rock still, worriedly scanning the deck for the man with piercing blue eyes. There was no one to be seen before the ship dipped again, this time going completely over until the mast splashed into the frigid water. A hand wrapped in a white glove that was flailing for some debris caught his attention as lightening cut the sky in two. He was still alive, trying desperately to cling to a plank of wood before his covered hands slipped, and he slid back into the water that would be his death.  
  
Without another thought, Quatre shoved himself off of his sanctuary, pushing his way through bodies and the ship's smashed remains to reach the one they called Heero. A muffled cry of hurt escaped the merboy as a piece of wood cut along his upper arm, leaving a jagged tear in his pale skin. Ignoring it for now, he dove deeper until his fingers encountered the dark blue coat of the Prince. With a push of his tail, he headed back for the surface, cradling Heero in his slender arms. As they nearer the mirror like barrier between air and water, he saw the Prince's eyes open, confused and glazy blue staring up at him. One last lash of his fins brought the pair back into the open air. Quatre's lips pressed feverishly to Heero's own, trying to bring warmth or life back into their chilly blueness, pushing air into his lungs. Bobbing in the roiling waves, there was no choice but to try for the shore. The rocks were too hard and slippery, and there was little left of the ship itself. It was hard work when they hit the sandbar. Quatre was forced to drag himself and then pull the other until they were mostly out of the water.   
  
Cradling Heero's head in his hands, the merboy swept back the soaked locks of deep brown hair, calling the Prince's name over and over only to be mostly drowned out by the howling wind. Curling about the inert form, he rubbed the man's hands with his own, snuggling against him to offer what warmth he had. After the storm abated and silence fell, he was rewarded with the sounds of weak coughing. The Prince's amber lashes parted once more as cerulean blue eyes took in his face. A weak hand rose to capture one of his sunny curls within the fingers, stroking it until Quatre pressed Heero's hand back down. "Stay still. Help will come."  
  
Nodding softly, the man's eyes slipped closed once more, his breathing calm and steady. Pinpricks of light began to dance along the coast as the villagers came to rescue what survivors they could. Fear nipped at Quatre's heart with sharp teeth. If he were captured, they'd kill or make a freak of him. Pulling himself back towards the ocean, he glanced once more to Heero with tears in his eyes. He would live at least and be found. Hiding once more against his rock, he watched a woman with long flowing brown hair discover the Prince's body and awaken him once more. As Heero sat up, his gaze moved from her back to the ocean as if searching for something... or someone. Touching his fingers to his lips, the merboy dove back beneath the waves. It was not his world with the one he'd given his heart to.  
  
A week later, Quatre sneaked away from his father's palace and into the darkest part of the ocean. There lived Morgana, the Sea Witch. Few ever ventured out this far, afraid of her evil powers. At one time, she had been one of the most beautiful mermaids in existence. Many would have happily taken her hand in marriage. She would have none of them. Morgana had loved a man of the surface world and had sought ancient powers that were long forbade any of the merpeople to gain what she wanted. In a way, she had. The man she had loved drowned himself trying to join her beneath the ocean. Since then, she had become a hermit, living where she never had to encounter anyone.   
  
Pausing before her cave, Quatre wrapped his arms about himself, trying to calm his own fears. She could destroy him, deny him what he sought, or hopefully, help him. There was no other choice than this...  
  
"Pondering something, are you?" a cracking voice asked from behind Quatre, nearly sending the merboy into a panicked flee.  
  
Snapping around, he found himself face to face with one of the most haggard visages he'd ever laid eyes on. Her hair had been red at once, a lush crimson perhaps. Now, it hung lifeless in the water, algae and sea slime clinging to the strands. Within the folds of corpse pale flesh hung two eyes of dead amber, staring blankly at him. Lips that looked like slabs of raw liver were pursed in a scowl, exposing viciously sharp teeth of a barracuda. Blinking, he quailed, backing away slowly. The merwoman nodded to herself, swimming within the cave and gesturing him to follow. "Well, come on, come on. I haven't got all day, and you've got your heart's desire to go chasing after, don't you?" 


	2. The Little Mermaid - Part Two

Quatre felt numb as he swam after the woman, waiting patiently while she fiddled about with different cauldrons within the cave. When she finally stopped before him once more, that same fear rushed up on him again. His mind screamed at him to forget this insanity and run. It was Heero's face as he awoke on shore in his mind's eyes that kept him still even as the merwoman poked and prodded at his body.   
  
"What do you want, boy? A love potion? I warn you that love is a bitch, my little one. She's a hard mistress and trying to fool her with magic often leads to sorrow."  
  
Swallowing thickly, he remembered the stories told of the Sea Witch and her lover. Poseidon wouldn't let that happen to him, would he? "I want to be human..."  
  
A tangled brow of rust red rose at those words from him, Morgana turning fully about to face him once more. "Ahhh... ta be human. Two legs instead of yer fins. And what might be the reason for this?"  
  
Quatre's fingers twisted together as he began to speak, that calming sensation from before flowing over him again. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realized he was being hypnotized or charmed... some sort of magic. What came out of his mouth was the truth instead of the carefully formed lie he'd been working over in his mind for the past week. "I love a human, Prince Heero. I want to be human so he will love me too. The sea would kill him if he were to come here, and I can't go up there like this."  
  
Morgana nodded slowly, jowls of flesh swinging in the current from her face. "And are ye sure that he loves you as well?"  
  
The merboy's fair skin was covered with a blush as he studied the floor, not able to untwist his tongue for an answer.  
  
"So he's not knowing how ye feel or even that ye exist. Aye, I can do it, but 'tis too high a price. Go back to yer palace, little one, and enjoy the three hundred years ye have to swim happy and free."  
  
Quatre shook his head, pleading with her. "Please! I don't care what the price is. I love him."  
  
A hand that felt far gentler than it was touched on his floating strands of hair, smoothing them in a consoling gesture. "Lad, should he marry another, then you'd die. Be nothin' more than foam floating on the water's surface. Ye have no immortal soul, no merperson does. 'Tis our curse. Every step ye'd take with those legs would feel like knives cuttin' in you. Yer tongue would have ta be removed as well. Poseidon's secrets are not for anyone to tell, even one of his own children. Be happy as ye are."  
  
The merboy cried softly, clinging to the Sea Witch's hand still and begging incoherently. Finally, she relented. "Aye, one couldn't have told me no either, I suppose. Let me see your mouth, child. The tongue will have to go if I am to do this."  
  
A hot pain flashed through Quatre's mouth as his tongue was removed, silent tears all he had to let his pain loose. Pity lay in the Sea Witch's eyes as she gave him a vial of a radiant blue fluid. "Drink this under the rising moon's light. Make sure yer on the beach, or you'll drown. Ye can always bring this back to me on the morrow, little one, and I'll reattach yer tongue. Yer smart enough to spin a pretty lie for yer father. Think before ye do this."  
  
Touching a chaste kiss to the wrinkled merwoman's cheek, Quatre laid a wealth of pearls on her table and sped for the shore. He would be human in few hours! What was losing his voice or bearing pain next to Prince Heero? Like most in love, he never gave thought to how he would even get within the Prince's court or meet him once more. Lying on the shore, he drank the vile mixture as the moon's first beams fell across his skin. The world dipped and plunged sickly as he flopped gracelessly on the dry sand, the sharp grains cutting into his delicate fin and skin. Gods, what he'd give to scream just once! Nails raked along the ground as it felt he was being ripped in two. Unconsciousness was finally kind enough to take him as the hurt grew too great.  
  
He woke to being shaken gently. As he opened his eyes, a smile broke out across his lips. His Prince was smiling down at him. His hands rose to touch along Heero's face, trace the planes that he had so many times in his dreams. The blue eyes studying him were surprised to say the least, a deep-seated hope lighting their dark depths. "I'm Heero. Who are you?"  
  
Quatre opened his mouth to say his own name, a gargling growl being his only reply. Slender hands clasped over his mouth as tears began to fall from his eyes. He'd forgotten the loss of his voice. The expression on Heero's face broke his heart. The hope that had been burning there went out like a candle in a cold wind, leaving the azure orbs dark and lifeless. Wiping his tears away, Heero tugged off his cloak, wrapping Quatre's nude form in it before sitting the still weeping boy onto the horse before him.   
  
A black haired male with coppery skin pulled his horse to a halt beside Heero's, eyeing the bundle on his lap curiously. "What is that? Rescuing another gull, Heero?"  
  
Heero glanced down to the blonde curled within his cloak, the delicate creature having cried himself to sleep. He had thought the dream had been real for a moment there. He looked so much like the creature that he'd claimed saved him from the ocean on the night of his birthday. The one that had saved him had possessed a beautiful voice, one that he still heard before falling into sleep at nights. Perhaps it had just been a fantasy spawned by the cold water and his own injuries. Glancing back up to Wufei, he shrugged softly. "A mute boy nearly drowned. Relena might be able to nurse him back to health. We could always use another servant, I suppose."  
  
Wufei nodded slowly, peeking over the edge of the cloak at the person within. Ebony eyes widened slightly before he spurred his horse, heading back to the castle. He saw the true nature of the creature that Heero held, knew what it was. A merperson on land.  
  
Time passed as it always does. Quatre healed and became slowly used to Court life. He was a page for Heero mostly, delivering his messages and the like. The only good thing about it was that most of his day was spent with the one he loved. Heero had patiently taught him how to read and form his letters. The Prince never laughed, except for the few times that Quatre managed to pull one from him with some bit of silliness. What worried the Prince most was when he would find Quatre curled up in some hall or his room holding his legs and weeping in hurt. No matter how often he asked, the small blonde would never tell him why. Even the Court physician couldn't give them a reason. It brought Heero to angry frustrations when there were tears he couldn't soothe away and had no idea why they were being caused. The boy's past was a blank as well, something the physician explained away as loss of memory caused by the shock of cold water much as Heero's fantasies had been caused. In all this time, Wufei kept a hawk like gaze on Quatre, never saying a word to him, only watching as if to pounce like a tiger at the first sign of wrongness from the boy.  
  
Six months had gone by when Quatre was awoken by the sounds of music from below. Stepping out of his bed, he fell to the cold stone floor, tears already beginning. Never would he grow used to the stabbing pain each step caused him. The mornings and the nights were the worst. Pulling himself up to the window, he felt his entire body grow cold. Below was a wedding procession with Heero standing at the altar. The brown haired girl, Relena was coming down the aisle to take his hand. While Quatre sobbed silently, he could hear their vows being spoken to each other and the two being bound together in marriage.  
  
"He's out of your power now, creature," Wufei spoke up from behind Quatre.  
  
Stricken aquamarine eyes met those of unforgiving black as the merboy shook his head. Sliding down to the floor, Quatre cried harder... for himself, for Heero, for the loss of everything. He was hardly aware of Wufei crouching over him until rough fingers seized his chin and tilted his face up to meet that of the Chinese male's. "Your kind killed my father, charmed him into the sea. My mother was nine months pregnant with me when she was trying to pull him out of the water with other villagers. He shook us off and kept calling for his mermaid even as he breathed in the water and died. Fate kept you from killing Heero the night of his birthday, and I've kept you from it ever since then. Now, he's married and out of your grip. Poseidon's children can never speak their heritage, can you, merthing? My father did tell me that before your kind stole his life."  
  
Quatre shook his head, reaching for his pad and pencil before scribbling down a few words. He was going to die anyways as soon as the moon rose, so what was to be lost by telling his secrets now?   
  
'I saved him that night. I love him. Sea Witch took your father. She didn't know he would die.'  
  
Wufei stared at the badly written words, wanting to call it all lies and shove it back in the face of the too pretty mercreature. The truth would win in the end. A dread started in the pit of his stomache. What if it was telling the truth? Handing the paper back, he lifted Quatre's chin again, forcing him to face him. "Then why didn't you just tell Heero? He's only marrying Relena because she's the second one he remembers saving him. If he knew it was you..."  
  
Quatre gazed up at him brokenheartedly before handing the paper back. For a time, Wufei could only stare at the accusing words there, his own spoken moments before.  
  
'Poseidon's children can never speak their heritage.'  
  
Wufei sighed. "Natuka forgive me. There's still time. He can divorce Relena...."  
  
Quatre shook his head, taking the paper back and painstakingly writing out his words.   
  
'Part of the price. If he married another, I die at moonrise.'  
  
Wufei gathered up the still weeping creature, rocking him in his arms as he watched the sun crawl across the sky towards nightfall and the wedding party below going into full swing. As twilight grew closer, Quatre tapped on Wufei's shoulder, his tears long since dried. Holding out the paper, there were two last requests written there.  
  
'I want to die beside the water, and I want you to watch over Heero.'  
  
Wufei nodded slowly as he lifted Quatre, not about to let him walk. As time had sped on, the merboy had explained everything to him, including the knifelike pain he'd had to endure for six months for the one he loved. Keeping the too frail creature against his chest, his ebony eyes moved over the water, searching for the outcropping of rocks he'd asked to be left on. Carrying him there, he slid onto their slick surface, the two of them watching the setting sun together. He knew he was poor comfort compared to Heero, but it was the best he could do for one he'd so greatly wronged. There had been so many times where he could have told Heero what he saw and the two of them confront Quatre. All of this could have been adverted if he'd just spoken up. Now... it was too late.  
  
As the last shards of fiery red sank below the horizon, soft music came to the pair. Two heads broke the surface of the waves, eyes watching Wufei with open hostility while gentle hands reached for Quatre's own. Both were male, one with long flowing chestnut hair and violet eyes with matching scales. The other had emerald green eyes with scales that flashed like the same precious stones. He pushed sodden brown hair from his face as he laid his head in Quatre's lap. The one with the odd purple eyes scowled at Wufei and swam to Quatre as well, laying a knife in his lap. Both whispered in the boy's ear in turn, voices pleading and mourning, begging him to do something. With last venomous glares to the other, they dove beneath the waves and vanished.  
  
Quatre's shaking fingers picked up the knife in his lap before holding it over the water. It flashed and glittered before it broke the surface of the water, following the currents to the bottom. Gathering his pencil within his hand, the blonde wrote one last note, letting the piece of wood fall to the ocean as well. Catch the falling slip of paper with nimble fingers; Wufei felt the shudder race through the merboy on his lap before the small body began to lose weight. Within seconds, he vanished, leaving behind a rainbow sheened foam across the water's surface. Feeling the salt stinging his eyes, Wufei opened the paper and read, the tear finally sliding down the slope of his cheek.  
  
'They said that I could live if I took the knife and plunged it through Heero's heart and scattered his blood on my legs. Take care of him for me.'  
  
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A few days after the marriage of Heero Yuy to Relena Peacecraft, Chang Wufei gave his childhood friend a small book entitled, 'The Little Mermaid'. Within was Quatre's tale of what he had endured for the man he'd fallen in love with from only a single glance. After reading it, Heero commissioned a statue to be built on the outcropping of rocks, a replica of the boy who had graced their court for a time complete with a tail forming his lower half. The creation's gaze was turned towards the place where Heero's ship had sank long ago, always looking for his Prince. Heero died a short time later for no reason anyone could see. He was in the prime of his life and completely healthy. Chang Wufei could have told him that he pined away for the only love he had known. The body was cremated and placed in a small sealed urn that was placed within the merboy's hands, leaving him to be ever watched over by his love. After finding the volume and reading it over herself, Relena Yuy had a second statue commissioned to join the first. A matching figure of Heero soon joined the lonely mermaid, the two of them together as they had been unable to be in life. It's said that occasionally there are gifts from the sea found there, pearls and the like. Sometimes, late at night, one can hear the mournful singing of the other mermaids calling for their long dead brother.  
  
Morgana herself could have told them not to weep for Quatre. Watching her crystal ball, she saw Quatre's soul, the one he had been given by love, waiting for and rejoicing when Heero's own joined him on the other side. 


End file.
